SHIPPING

[hibiscusmile]

No, you are right, I am yelling. A lot of people are shipping their babies in dangerous ways. I know there is a post on here on

how to ship and I never really said anything about it as I felt, what did I know! But I have received so many mantis who have

had a sheet of tissue or towel paper on their head or been entangled in excelsior that I am almost afraid to , no not almost but AFRAID to open packages.

When you ship, it is ok to put a towel paper on the lid, glued to it or stuck under the lid, ANY OTHER tissue in the container and excelsior is not needed. Please stop adding it. The mantis if it falls, will get up and reposistion itself on the lid, if there is tissue in there and excelsior, they just don't stand a chance. Sure every now and then they are strong and can get out of it, but for those that are more scared or weak anything extra in the container just makes it to hard to get out of. They are in the dark and not happy, so stop trying to strangle or smother them.

For a mantis that may molt in shipping, if the container is not big enough for this to happen, don't expect the mantis to do well. God made them to molt in a certain way, just like babies come out head first, feet first propose a problem.

 

[Sticky]

Agreed!

 

[Rick]

I don't know why a bit of tissue or excelsior would cause any issues. We have to assume packages are jostled around a good bit in shipping and something like those items in a container may cushion a fall and give the mantis more places to grip in a container that is mostly empty space otherwise. A mantis that may molt shouldn't be shipped in the first place so that argument is invalid here.

The issue I have is that some people feel they need to wrap a package so tightly in multiple layers . I've had many DOA's due to multiple layers of wrapping, newspaper, tape, etc. And then you have those people who cannot package in such a way that keeps critters inside the container. I shouldn't open a package and have spikes or fly pupae all over inside the box. More than once I have had my mailman hand over a box of feeders that had been placed into a secondary container by the postal service because maggots were crawling out of the box.

 

[Krissim Klaw]

When you ship, it is ok to put a towel paper on the lid, glued to it or stuck under the lid, ANY OTHER tissue in the container and excelsior is not needed.

The one issue I would find with only sticking something on the lid is what happens if the package ends up upside down while in transit? Then the only easy to grip to surface will be on the ground. I do agree however anything added to the inside that is large enough to potentially blanket and entrap the mantis should definitely be fixed into place somehow.

I am a less is more kind of girl though. I also tend to find adding prey items way more of a risk than a benefit. Either the mantis is going to eat it right away (in which case you could have simply fed it before packaging) or it will spend the entire trip being startled and stressed out by the prey constantly bumping into it in the tiny shipping container.

My big rant to shippers is please do not mist the inside of the tiny containers you are packaging your bugs in. There is next to no ventilation, so the water can't evaporate leaving the mantis to be steamed alive when shipped to a hot already humid place like FL. All of my DOA experiences have involved containers with water droplets still lining the inside of the containers.

 

[hibiscusmile]

Well I was just sent orchids and it has 3 orchids molting and all were intwinded in the excelsior. Not only that, the towel paper on the bottom was loose, so when opening the package it was in the towel traveled with them an alas all ended up dying. Tried to upload the photos, but they are to big and I dont know how to resize them. If anyone does and wants to try I will send them to you.

The molting arguement is valid here, if everyone would not send molting mantis I would not of mentioned it. Sometimes it happens, but sometimes people do it knowing full well they are about to molt.

 

[Toxic]

What's excelsior? Just wondering what our uk version is as I've never heard of it and google just brings up bikes and Star Trek haha......

Just use polystyrene cups all sides are rough enough of mantids to grip to easy.... Add a single sheet of tissue between the lid and the cup and use 2 rubber band to go over the lid and under the cup making sure the lid can not fall off.....

Sent 100's this way and never had a problem.....

 

[soundspawn]

Excelsior is fine wood strands or ribbons, you may know of it as wood wool: http://factorydirectcraft.com/pimages/20050805141554-796277/natural_wood_excelsior.jpg

 

[PlayingMantis]

My big rant to shippers is please do not mist the inside of the tiny containers you are packaging your bugs in. There is next to no ventilation, so the water can't evaporate leaving the mantis to be steamed alive when shipped to a hot already humid place like FL. All of my DOA experiences have involved containers with water droplets still lining the inside of the containers.

This is so true. I've received mantids in plastic cups sealed with plastic lids. Apparently the mantids were misted before shipping and the water droplets had no chance to evaporate, which led to DOA's. Even having a few holes punched in the lids isn't enough.

What I like to do is to use mesh lids, which 1) increases ventilation, and 2) gives the mantis something to grip on.

I personally don't mind adding extra tissue, provided it is glued down securely. I always like to glue a paper towel to the bottom, which ensures the mantis is OK even if the box is turned upside down. I make sure the paper towel is glued down nice and firm, and there are no "gaps" between the towel and the plastic. I just can't help but imagine a scenario where a mantis gets trapped between the paper towel and plastic.

The box might even be turned sideways, so I either use styrofoam or paper cups, both of which provide better grip. If I happen to be using smooth plastic cups, I add additional tissue to the sides. Again, I make sure the tissue is glued on firmly and there are no gaps between the tissue and the plastic surface. I also make sure there are no extra "flaps" of tissue, where a mantis (or its legs) might get trapped.

I like to ship mantids that I am pretty sure are not going to molt soon. With older instars I can time the molts, but with younger ones, it may be a little tricky to tell if they will molt soon or not. I guess to be on the safe side, it's better to wait until they molt, give them a few days to harden up, and then ship. That said, I've received many mantids that molted safely in transit.

Speaking of having food in containers - I find that having fruit flies is fine. But regular flies...well, I once received a baby ghost that molted fine in transit, but somehow it was DOA. It looked kind of crushed. I imagine the culprit was the big BBF that was bouncing around in the container like a dangerous projectile.

And just a disclaimer - what I said is just based on my own experience/observations. Just my two cents.

 

[Ranitomeya]

I like to make sure that I ship my mantises in containers that have paper towel hotglued to the lid, to the bottom, and along the sides. I provide them with as much food and drink as they'll accept just prior to packing them up and I ship them with either no moisture in their shipping cups or just a couple drops to ensure there's a small amount of humidity. I too have had nymphs shipped to me with excess moisture and that ended up drowning some and creating a bacterial swamp that sickened the rest.

I also try to ship them in individual containers so there's no chance of cannibalism and they usually have no food unless they're small nymphs. Small nymphs get a few fruit flies in case they get hungry along the way. It's disappointing when you get shipped mantises and see that they've cannibalized one another over the trip.

I avoid putting extra stuff in the cups in case one of them attempts to molt during shipping and because there's always the chance that things can get jostled around during shipping and trap or crush the mantises. If they need something to grip, it's best that they're able to grip on something that won't be shifting beneath their feet as the package moves around. A mantis that falls over frequently can get stressed easily and I imagine the stress and the unnecessary expenditure of valuable energy could easily weaken a mantis.

 

[twolfe]

Sorry to hear about the Orchids hibiscusmile. Good discussion and points, and some of what I say may be repetitious.

I started a new job a year ago and cut back on the number of species that I'm keeping and breeding this year. At the moment, I'm only shipping one to two packages a month to one (occasionally two) resellers. As a newbie I read the packing suggestions before I shipped but also paid close attention to how some of the experienced breeders shipped. I made a few mistakes as a newbie but changed my methods over time and am told the majority of my arrivals are perfect.

I buy U-Line boxes in bulk that are thicker than the free boxes from the USPS. I use foam insulation in most boxes. (Total cost is around $ 1.00)

My regular shipments contain 35 - 50 L2/L3 nymphs. I used portion cups for a while but that takes too much time to prepare and pack orders like that. (Would consider doing this only with a rare species if there was a risk of cannibalism.) Now I use plastic containers that fruit and salad are sold in at grocery stores. I glue paper towels to the top and bottom and sometimes the sides if I need to cover holes in the container. Instead of misting the entire containers as I did a few times in the beginning, I now spray most species of mantids shortly before I pack them to give them a good drink. As Rick says, you shouldn't ship if you think a mantis is going to molt. However, I often am shipping nymphs that hatched different days and were kept together in the same net. I try to time the shipments to after a recent molt, but with large orders, there are sometimes stragglers. So, I occasionally put a drop of water on the paper towel on the bottom of the enclosure, but that probably isn't necessary with overnight shipments. I eliminated using excelsior altogether a few years ago. (I don't even use it in my fruit fly cultures!) The containers I use work better for me than deli cups because I'm shipping multiple nymphs. They have more surface to hang from on the top of the container.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I only work half days. So, I prepare my packages in the morning before I go to work. I add some flies to the enclosures and then leave the enclosures sitting on the counter so the mantids aren't in the dark longer than necessary. When I get home, I double check to ensure there isn't any visible moisture or excess flies in the enclosures. Then I put them in the box and take them to the post office.

As I mentioned, I mostly ship L2/L3 nymphs. When shipping adults, I do feed them ahead of time but try to give them the right amount of food. Adult females that are overfed seem to be fall more often in transit. (That's my guess with what happened to some that were shipped to me.) I also try not to ship freshly molted adults.

I also prefer to ship priority only on Mondays and Tuesdays when possible just in case there are any delays.

 

[Toxic]

Excelsior is fine wood strands or ribbons, you may know of it as wood wool: http://factorydirectcraft.com/pimages/20050805141554-796277/natural_wood_excelsior.jpg

Ahhh yes thank you....

 

[hibiscusmile]

What's excelsior? Just wondering what our uk version is as I've never heard of it and google just brings up bikes and Star Trek haha......

Just use polystyrene cups all sides are rough enough of mantids to grip to easy.... Add a single sheet of tissue between the lid and the cup and use 2 rubber band to go over the lid and under the cup making sure the lid can not fall off.....

Sent 100's this way and never had a problem.....

Thats all I use too, rarely use anything else. I used too use the tissue, but now glue a rough ring I call molting ring to the lid.

 

[Sticky]

Excelsior is fine wood strands or ribbons, you may know of it as wood wool: http://factorydirectcraft.com/pimages/20050805141554-796277/natural_wood_excelsior.jpg

I love it when I get plants or other things that are cushioned with excelsior. I keep it and use it in my ff cups. That is one of the best ways to recycle packing materials!